One of the major reasons Western Australia’s prison population is at a record high is because the State is jailing poverty stricken fine defaulters. The State’s Corrective Service Minister, Joe Francis, supports the jailing as a due punishment.
More than 15 per cent of Western Australia’s prison population is comprised by fine defaulters. Ludicrously, they clear the unpaid fines at $250 per day by being in jail while at the same time it costs the Corrective Services budget $350 per day to keep a prisoner locked up. In NSW, the practice of arresting, sentencing and locking up fine defaulters was outlawed in 1988.
The majority of fine defaulters are just poor.
Mr Francis said, “Just because you are on welfare and you can’t afford to pay a fine doesn’t mean you should be exempt from the ramifications of the justice system.”
During the last several years the incarceration of fine defaulters has increased each year. From 2008 to 2013, there has been more than a 500 person increase. In 2008, 194 Western Australians were locked up for fine defaults. In 2013, 1100 Western Australians were locked up because they could not pay their fines.
The State’s Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples are disproportionately burdened, once again and as per usual. They comprise less than 3 per cent of the State’s total population but are about 45 per cent of the State’s prison population. A couple of years ago the State built its 14th adult prison – an all-Aboriginal prison. Western Australia is the mother of all jailers of Aboriginal peoples, not just in Australia but in the world. One in 13 of all the State’s Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander adult males are in prison.
Nearly half the Western Australians jailed for fine defaults are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders. While the most of the rest of the nation is pursuing reforms and reducing the jailing of fine defaulters, Western Australia is at breakneck speed slamming prison doors on them.
The further west we journey across this continent the more racist it gets, the harsher it gets on our poorest, on the marginalised, on the downtrodden.
LINKS:
Disturbing rate of imprisonment – ABC 7:30 Report
Jailed on a fine default – ABC report
not much point in constructing all these beautiful shiny new prisons if you are not going to round up people to put in them is there? Otherwise they’d be rotting round the landscape being a joke to the world like those cities in China we hear about. Or some of those hard to let new giant towers of office space we keep hearing about in our cities. Of course if Capitalisim were a logical system , which I understand it isn’t, otherwise it wouldn’t be called Capitalism, the fine defaulters could instead be stored in our vacant high rise office buildings. As it is perhaps the caring business class could be stored in the shiny new guantanamo style prisons if they turn up wanting the use of office space after all.
WGAR News: …
https://indymedia.org.au/2015/02/01/wgar-news-grandmothers-against-removals-call-for-support
Contents: …
* News: SNAICC: We must look to our humanity to solve the crisis of Indigenous incarceration
* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: More than 15 % in jail for unpaid fines
* WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody
“The further west we journey across this continent the more racist it gets, the harsher it gets on our poorest, on the marginalised, on the downtrodden.”
I am totally amazed that Western Australia is still living in the dark ages when it comes to justice. According to this article “In NSW, the practice of arresting, sentencing and locking up fine defaulters was outlawed in 1988.” Why should it be any different in WA? Mr Francis said, “Just because you are on welfare and you can’t afford to pay a fine doesn’t mean you should be exempt from the ramifications of the justice system.” Surely this is discriminatory and needs to be brought up to date with the rest of Australia. Why should West Australians be treated differently to their fellow Australians?
Even many of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT) hearings are not recorded and are held behind closed doors with no transparency or accountability, allowing for abuse of power. Apparently the SSAT also have some power to refer some cases to other departments where children are involved. According to another Stringer article “there are 14,000 children right across this continent of First Peoples who have been removed from their families in 2014 by the DCPs. That is a higher number of removals than in any year of the ‘official’ Stolen Generation years from 1905 to 1970. Are we witnessing another stolen generation??? It is not just the Aboriginal peoples that are at stake here.
Even the Administrative Appeals Tribunal is approving Stay Orders, (orders to continue Security Security payments), armed with the knowledge, that the vast majority of their cases, (over 90% according to the Department of Human Services 2012/2013 Annual Report), are knocked back once again leaving our poorest, our marginalised, the downtrodden and most vulnerable in society with thousands of dollars in over-payments. This is ruthless and unacceptable in this day and age.
I think we are well overdue for a review of our justice system. These are our fellow Australian’s and their children’s lives that are at stake.
INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE!!! (Martin Luther King).
Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
WGAR News: Land Grab In The Outback: Australia Unites Against Genocide of First Peoples with Gerry Georgatos and Elders: Global Freedom Movement Media
https://indymedia.org.au/2015/04/16/wgar-news-land-grab-in-the-outback-australia-unites-against-genocide-of-first-peoples
Contents:
* Extended Insightful Audio/Video Interview: Aimee Devlin & Brendan D. Murphy, Global Freedom Movement Media:
Land Grab In The Outback: Australia Unites Against Genocide of First Peoples with Gerry Georgatos and Elders [Featuring Bella & Herbert Bropho] …
* News Analysis: NACCHO Health & Justice News: Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 24th anniversary but still in crisis
* News Analysis: NACCHO Prison Health News: Prisons are a poor substitute for primary and mental health care
* News Analysis: Melissa Sweet, Croakey – the Crikey health blog: Change the narrative to stop Aboriginal incarceration
* News Analysis: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: We are about to stop jailing fine defaulters – to the critics, do not naively criticise this away …
* WGAR Background: Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Aboriginal deaths in custody …